~▪︎(Y/n)'s P.O.V▪︎~
The pink mist was gone, and once again, I was standing in Nightmare's Castle. Everything was very different. The sense of negativity and darkness that was once there was empty, but at the same time, it was powerful.
I heard the echoing voice of Dream from somewhere, and I really wanted to find him and wrap him up in a ring of fire.
Why did he want me to fight Nightmare? Why couldn't he fight him himself? Was he scared of Nightmare?
Where was Nightmare? Why do we always get separated?
Because life is a bi-- Chara chimed, purposely cutting herself off.
Chara! Exclaimed Batfang with a tiny gasp. Chara giggled.
"Guys, hush, this is no time for fun and games," I whispered softly.
"Who are you talking to?" said a sudden voice. I jumped, turning around with my arms in a chopping motion. I saw Horror standing there, his red eye-light glowing like usual and a grin was plastered on his face.
"Wouldn't you like to know, Mister Axe Velociraptor of Death?" I countered.
Horror snorted, but I couldn't tell if he was laughing or offended. "Yeah, weirdo, that's why I asked."
"Well, fortunately for you, it doesn't matter at all! Because this is totally not real at all. We're in a dream. Well, I am."
"(Y/n). I have no idea what you're talking about," Horror said, serious all of a sudden. "I swear, I fainted in this hypnotic ugly mist, and I woke up back here. I thought I was dreaming!"
Welp. This is confusing now. Why is Horror here too? I thought Dream just wanted me to fight Nightmare. What on Earth was happening?
"Dream...that dang banana," I muttered, but I didn't realize I said it out loud until Horror went silent.
"What does Dream have anything to do with this?" he asked slowly.
I glared at him. "I don't know! That mist was caused by Dream! He wants me to fight Nightmare for some ridiculous reas--"
Horror put a hand over my mouth. "Shh! I hear something," he whisper-yelled.
I bit his hand. "You piece of bacon, get off me," I hissed. He growled, biting my finger.
"I said hush! Don't make me bite your whole hand off!" he whispered.
I rolled my eyes. "If you bite my hand off, I'll bite your head off!"
The oh so terrifying Velociraptor of Death shoved me against a wall, hiding me from whatever he was afraid of.
I began to panic, because his hands were on me, but I didn't show it. Or at least, I thought I didn't. I was apparently trembling.
He rolled me around the corner of the hall, still hovering in front of me, eyeing whatever was in the blackness. "Please, stay quiet, there's something out there and it's not friendly."
I snorted. "Oh please, I can take care of myself." Deep down, I was secretly touched that he cared about my wellbeing. Dummy. You should pick better friends than me. I'm a burden.
(Y/n), don't talk like that. You are NOT a burden. You're a great friend! I'm glad Horror sees that, and I'm glad everyone who is your friend sees that.
I didn't say anything to that, but I noticed that Horror was gazing at me, red dusted on his cheeks. Holy cheesecakes, this crazy skeleton has a crush on me, I thought. He has got to be mad. Nightmare would kill him if he found out.
Horror seemed to notice his emotions, and he pulled away, and I swore I saw sadness flicker in his eye. Like he knew. That he couldn't love me.
Murderous teddy bear, I thought. A scary, not so scary teddy bear loves me. EW. Ugh. No. Please, no more skeletons having crushes on me. He's like a brother--
"Where isss ssssheeeee?" said a deep, trembling voice that sounded as a long hiss.
I peeked around the corner, noticing a little shadow sniffing about. It looked like some sort of weasel creature, but it was very slender and black, with glowing white eyes. It made strange scuffling-growl sounds.
“I know you’re somewhere,” it snarled, lifting its head to sniff the air. “So close by…”
I rolled back around the corner, where Horror grabbed my wrist. “We need to leave,” he whispered, gesturing down the dark hall.
“But what if it’s not dangerous?”
“(Y/n),” Horror hissed softly. “That thing is being followed by Dust.”
I shrugged. “Dust is chill.”
Horror sighed. “No, mouse, you don’t understand.”
“What don’t I understand?”
“When you and boss left…Dust went mad, because he thought you were turning boss soft, and he threatened that when he gets back, he’s going to…”
“Kill me?”
“...Yes. We got into an argument, and I chased him out of the castle, but apparently he got dragged into this dream. Now he’s looking for you…”
I stared at him in disbelief. Dust wouldn’t hurt me, would he? I remembered the first time I met him, and I got mad at him because he wouldn’t help Error, who had been glitching out. I realized he probably would, if he had the chance…
“Okay,” I whispered very softly. “Let’s—”
“I FOUND HER!”
I jumped back, almost stumbling into the floor. The weasel thing saw me and growled at me, and behind it was a pair of glowing blue-red eyes.
“Human,” said Dust. Apparently, he didn’t notice Horror, because he let the weasel corner me at the end of the hall, and he summoned a bone to point it at me.
“You wretched human.”
I summoned my flames, brightening up the entire hallway. Dust’s eye sockets widened somehow, and he jumped back a little. He noticed Horror standing grimly in the middle of the hall, giving him a horrifying glare. He clutched his axe, which glinted eerily in the dim light of the castle.
Remind me never to mess with Horror, I thought to Batfang and Chara.
“Horror, wait—” said Dust.
Horror didn’t say anything. He stepped closer to us. If Dust was afraid, he wasn’t showing it. He held a sharp bone in one of his hands, pointing it at Horror.
“Get out of here,” Dust hissed.
Horror shook his head. “If you hurt (Y/n), Boss is going to kill you,” he said softly.
Dust snorted. “And? He’s not going to do crap. He’s gone soft. Because of her.”
The sharp floating bone jabbed itself into my skull. Biting back a yelp, I threw a fireball at Dust, who screeched and jumped back like a scared kitten.
“You— you— ow!” sputtered Dust, rubbing his arm, where his sleeve had a very noticeable singed hole.
“Don’t mess with me!” I yelled. “I have the power of God and fire on my side!”
“I don’t care,” Dust cooed. “I’m much more powerful than you.”
“And I will throw more fire at you and ruin your precious jacket.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
Dust lunged forward at me, levitating, but Horror shoved him aside, blocking him from attacking. “There will be no fighting. I need to axe you a question.”
“Oh my stars, Horror! Quit saying that all the time!” Dust whined, throwing back his head and groaning in exasperation.
Horror grinned for a moment, and then looked at the strange weasel creature, who hadn’t said or done anything yet.
“What is that?”
“It’s my friend,” Dust replied matter of factly.
“The only friends you have are the piles of dust you make,” I muttered.
The weasel sniggered at my comeback, but it grew four more legs, and then it crawled up the wall like some creepy spider demon.
Sticky black silk wrapped around my waist and I was suddenly lifted in the air, onto the creature’s back. I tried to burn it with my fire, but to no avail.
“Sssheee will be coming with meee,” it hissed. “Yellow banana’s order.”
“Who the he—” Dust tried, but the creature shot silk at Dust and wrapped it around his mouth and hands.
“You will no longer talk, or speak, or hurt the human,” it said, and strangely, it reminded me of Nightmare.
Is this secretly Nightmare? I wondered. No. It seems different, somehow.
Horror stared up at me, worry sparking in his eye. He reached up, but the spider weasel smacked his hand with a paw.
“No,” it snapped, then it scurried away along with me on its back.
• • • •
I managed to escape the creature’s grasp about fifteen rooms away from where I originally was. It tried to bite me, but I threw fire at its face. Apparently its eyes were its weak spots.
“Pleassse,” it begged. “Don’t leeave. I neeed to take you to him.”
“To who?”
“Nightmare!”
I froze. “Nightmare?”
“Yessss, dummy!”
“I’m sorry, dummy.”
“Dummy!”
“Okay, okay, fine, I won’t run away. You could have just asked me to follow you.”
The weasel’s eyes widened. “What? Really?”
“Yes.” What a curious little shadow. It doesn’t seem like it wants to hurt me. It’s kind of cute.
“Okay, follow me, human!” I realized then that it wasn’t a weasel, but a friendly spider ferret. “Please,” it added quickly.
“Do you have a name?” I asked while following it.
“Samantha! I’m a spider shadow.”
“And a ferret?”
“Kind of. Just a shadow. A little shadow.”
I asked her how she found Dust.
“He found me and he threatened me if I didn’t find you for him. But he never gave me any more instructions after that so I took you!”
I suddenly heard a voice in my head, and it wasn’t Batfang or Chara.
Please, don’t panic, but Nightmare is really angry.
Dream! Get out of my head.
How about no?
Why are you here?
I need to tell you something.
Fine.
I put you here because I need you to remember,
Remember what?
Nightmare.
Then the walls of the castle faded away and we were in a meadow. A very bright meadow. So bright I thought that my eyes would fall out.
Samantha jumped around in the blossoms, then looked up at the blue sky and screeched, “AEO, LEIVA TI RE FA SO LA!”
The meadow suddenly faded away, and a cityscape came to view. A dirty, gray building with crooked windows and broken stairs was there.
It was the orphanage.
The orphanage I lived in for all those years. Why was I 18 when I finally got out?
There was a tall shadow next to the shaggy staircase, and I watched myself get thrown out of the door, hitting a tree.
It’s a memory.
The tall shadow moved. It was a Sans I recognized, standing as still as a leaf.
It was Classic Sans. And he watched as I got up and left, making no move to help me.
When I had turned my back, Classic Sans shapeshifted into the spooky scary skeleton we all know and love: Nightmare.
He headed into the front door, menacingly might I add, and now I was in there, too.
My horrible caretaker Alex was on the floor, sobbing in fear. His helper, Cassandra, was in the corner in the kitchen suffering from burns that I gave her.
All the children were out of the rooms, quivering in fear. Nightmare noticed them, put a finger to his teeth and softly sang, “Hush now little shadows, don’t say a word. Nighty’s gonna make the adults pay. Please scuttle back to your dorms, don’t be afraid. . . I will make you safe once again.”
The children left, scurrying like they’d been told. Then Nightmare walked to Alex.
“You will not ever hurt the children,” he said softly.
Alex screeched in fear. “You’re the monster from--”
“I’m not a monster.”
“You killed children’s parents and made them orphans! You are too a monster”
“Hey, don’t try to shift the subject here.”
“I—”
“Hush. I want you to apologize to (Y/n) for what you did to her.”
“She’s a monster too, and I will not apologize.”
Nightmare leaned down to Alex’s ear, his one good eye glowing a faint lavender. “One more chance. Usually I don't even mention a second chance to people like you.”
Alex’s face went as pale as a ghost. “She’s gone, she’s… she’s—”
“No excuses, Alex.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Apologize.”
“NO!” Alex made the second greatest mistake of his life (the first being throwing me out) : he kicked Nightmare in the side. Nightmare held Alex’s foot, and the longer he did, the more the foot disintegrated into the tar like an eerie acid of death.
Alex screamed, and Nightmare dropped Alex’s leg.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?”
“I didn’t do anything. You touched me,” Nightmare said simply, his voice soft and dark.
Nightmare did this to Alex? Is this why he didn't help me?
This is the wrong memory, but yes. He did, said Dream.
“Will you apologize?” Nightmare asked Alex, one last time.
“No.”
I watched as Alex fell into a shadow pit, and then Cassandra, who hadn’t even gotten a chance at all.
Then Nightmare snapped his fingers, and a friendly Shadow Papyrus came from the shadows of the wall. Papyrus was told to take care of the children, and he seemed happy to do so. He cleaned the entire orphanage of the dusty cobwebs, made it a more pleasing colour than the bare pale brown, and he even started to cook some spaghetti while humming a soft song.
Nightmare glared at him, not particularly enjoying the skeleton’s joy.
Nightmare sighed, and he snapped two more Papyrus into existence, but they weren’t as happy as the first. They did, however, obey Nightmare nevertheless with not a thought in their heads. Once Nightmare made sure the children were safe, he disappeared— but before that, he transformed back into Classic Sans.
▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎
Now I was back in the meadow, but the sky was navy blue dappled with splotches of orange and red. It was like dawn trying to shatter the night, but the night was too strong, and night remained. The stars were not present, nor the moon. Only the faint reaching light of the sun that was dusted over with dark, humid clouds.
In the distance was a tree stump.
And behind that shriveled up tree stump stood the King of Nightmares. There was a sudden wave of hatred, anger, and to my surprise...
Pain.